Iwakuma knocks Royals out of wild-card race

SEATTLE (AP) – Hisashi Iwakuma pitched eight scoreless innings and Mike Zunino homered twice to lead the Seattle Mariners to a 6-0 win against Kansas City, ending the Royals’ playoff hopes Wednesday night.

The Royals entered Wednesday four games behind Cleveland for the second wild-card berth with five games to play.

All three teams ahead of Kansas City in the wild-card hunt – Tampa Bay, Cleveland and Texas – won on Wednesday, and the Royals needed a victory to keep their slim hopes alive. Iwakuma made sure they didn’t get one.

Ervin Santana matched Iwakuma and kept the Mariners scoreless for the first four innings before Seattle broke through. Santana went six innings, allowing four runs and five hits with two strikeouts and four walks.

MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) – The foundation of the Kansas State football program since Bill Snyder’s arrival more than two decades ago has been what he calls the “16 Goals for Success.”

Things such as unselfishness, commitment and unity.

More often than not, the Wildcats have thrived on these principles. But as they mull over a 2-2 start that included a loss at Texas on Saturday night to open Big 12 play, those same goals are providing a good place to start figuring out where things have gone wrong.

Kansas State has this week off before resuming conference play next week at Oklahoma State.

When asked what Kansas State needs to do to get right, Snyder replied: “We need to improve in the intrinsic values segment of our program.” In other words, his 16 goals.

 

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) – Andrew Wiggins slouched down in a chair with cameras stuck in his face. Conner Frankamp tried to heave in a half-court shot. Wayne Selden sat back and smiled inside Allen Fieldhouse.

The calendar hasn’t even flipped to October and basketball is already on the mind at Kansas.

The Jayhawks will get their first chance to step on the floor this week after the NCAA’s legislative council amended and approved a measure allowing men’s basketball teams to conduct 30 days of practice in the six weeks prior to their first regular-season game.

Kansas plays its first exhibition game Oct. 29 against Pittsburg State, and its first game that counts against Louisiana-Monroe on Nov. 8.

The Kansas State Wildcats enter into their first bye week not where they hoped to be at the beginning of the season.

After the first four games the Wildcats are 2-2 on the season and 0-1 in Big 12 play following the 31-21 loss Saturday to the University of Texas.

Bill Snyder, KSU Head Coach, explained what the team needs to do in order to get better during the bye week,” We just need to go back to the value system that we have tried to operate on for a long period of time, those goals so to speak.”

The need to work on getting back to that “value system” was also expressed by Sophomore Defensive Lineman, Travis Britz,”We are a young team and we are sometimes inexperienced in some situations. Our unity is there, we just need to work on the fundamentals.”

The situation remains the same at quarterback for the wildcats. “We have two quarterbacks that are playing well, and as I have said before, both of them deserve the opportunity to play and both of them will have the opportunity to play,” Snyder said.

K-State has two weeks to prepare for the rest of Big 12 play that starts back up next Saturday on the road once again, this time to Stillwater, Oklahoma to take on the Oklahoma State Cowboys. That game has been scheduled for a 2:30 p.m. kickoff.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – The Kansas City Chiefs have elevated offensive guard Rishaw Johnson from the practice squad to the 53-man roster and waived linebacker Josh Martin.

The Chiefs are thin on the interior of the line after left guard Jeff Allen injured his groin Thursday night in Philadelphia. Allen did not practice Monday.

Johnson entered the NFL as an undrafted free agent with the Seahawks last season. He was released by Seattle in August and signed by the Chiefs earlier this month.

Martin was a surprise when he made the Chiefs as an undrafted free agent out of Columbia. He was inactive for the team’s first three games.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – The Kansas City Chiefs are all about fast starts these days.

They’ve started fast in games, taking the lead in the first quarter of each of them, and carrying that advantage into halftime twice. And they’ve started fast on the season, beating the Jaguars, Cowboys and Eagles to surpass their win total from all of last year.

While that may seem like something to scoff about so early in the season, consider that Kansas City never led a game in regulation until Week 9 a year ago.

Chiefs coach Andy Reid insisted that he’d rather score most than first, but he also said there’s value in getting on the board early. It helps build confidence while also allowing a team to settle in for the rest of the game.

 

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) – Wichita State is rewarding men’s basketball coach Gregg Marshall with a raise for taking the Shockers to the Final Four for the first time since 1965.

The school announced Monday that Marshall’s amended contract raises his base salary to $1.6 million on Nov. 9 and $1.75 million next April. The Wichita Eagle reports Marshall’s previous base salary was $1.03 million without incentives.

Marshall has a 139-70 record in six years at Wichita State and remains under contract until 2020. He was the Missouri Valley Conference coach of the year the past two seasons.

The Shockers defeated Pittsburgh, Gonzaga, La Salle, and Ohio State in this year’s NCAA tournament before losing to eventual champion Louisville 72-68 in the semifinals.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – Justin Maxwell hit a grand slam with two outs in the 10th inning and

the Kansas City Royals beat the Texas Rangers 4-0 Sunday in a matchup of AL wild-card contenders.

The Oakland Athletics clinched the AL West with the Rangers’ loss.

Texas dropped 1 1/2 games behind Cleveland for the second wild-card spot. Kansas City is 3 1/2 back.

Maxwell connected off former Royals All-Star closer Joakim Soria.

Royals starter James Shields gave up six hits in eight innings, walking one and striking out two.

Texas starter Alexi Ogando pitched two-hit ball for seven innings, striking out five and walking one.

 

Kansas City nipped Texas 2-1 on Friday night at Kaufmann Stadium. Neftali Feliz walked Alcides Escobar on four pitches with the bases loaded in the eighth inning for the go-ahead run. Texas dropped a half-game behind the Indians for the second AL wild-card spot with the loss. The Royals are two-and-a-half games back in the race for that final wild-card spot in the playoffs.